The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus that collects information on an apparatus for operation and maintenance.
An image forming apparatus such as a multi-functional peripheral, a copier, or a printer is installed in a client's company or office. For such an image forming apparatus, there is a service to provide a client with information related to operation and maintenance of the image forming apparatus. For example, a client is provided with a notification that a member as part of the image forming apparatus is approaching the end of its life or a notification that a remaining amount of a consumable item such as toner has become low. In order to provide such a service, a server of a service provider may be connected to the image forming apparatus of each client via a network such as the Internet.
There is known the following technique focused on information security between a server and each image forming apparatus. To be specific, an image processing system has an external system and an internal system that are connected to each other by way of a prescribed data transmission path. The external system includes a first information processing device that manages highly public information as external information and provides a software service. The internal system includes a second information processing device that manages highly confidential information as internal information and a third information processing device that outputs provision information provided by the software service. The first information processing device transmits an information generation module that generates the provision information to an acquisition request source and thus provides an information generation function thereto. The third information processing device receives the information generation module from the first information processing device and thus acquires the information generation function. Furthermore, the third information processing device executes the information generation module to generate the provision information by using the external information acquired from the first information processing device and the internal information acquired from the second information processing device. This configuration is such that an external management server does not collect internal information on a user environment.
As mentioned above, there may be a case where various types of information is collected from a client's image forming apparatus and accumulated in an external server. Collected are pieces of information related to actual usage of each image forming apparatus owned by a client, such as errors that have occurred, the number of printed sheets that have been made, and a length of time in which the image forming apparatus has been used. The pieces of information thus collected can be used for management (maintenance) of the image forming apparatus, as a result of which the client can be provided with useful information. There may also be a case where collected information is statistically analyzed to, for example, discover an error likely to happen, and in this manner, the information is used for development of an image forming apparatus.
In recent years, a local network is often constructed within a particular range as a unit, such as a company, a public office, a department, or an office. Once a PC of each user and an image forming apparatus have been connected to a local network (LAN), data can be transmitted from the PC of each user to the image forming apparatus via the LAN to be printed out. It is also possible to transmit image data generated at the image forming apparatus to the PC via the LAN. As described above, there may be a case where an image forming apparatus is connected to a PC of each user by way of a LAN.
In a case where an image forming apparatus is connected to a LAN, a server on the LAN, which manages the image forming apparatus, such as an in-house server, may execute an application for collecting information on each image forming apparatus. In this case, the information on each image forming apparatus is once collected in the server. Then, from the server on the LAN, the information on each image forming apparatus thus collected is transmitted to an external server.
This scheme, however, is problematic in that, in order to collect information on an image forming apparatus, it may be required to provide at least one server in the LAN. Providing a server increases an installation cost and requires an installation space.
Also in the above-mentioned known technique, in one internal network, there are provided at least three types of information processing devices including a server. It is, therefore, impossible to solve the problems of an installation cost and an installation space, which are entailed in providing a server.